B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International condemns the kidnappings of at least 90 Assyrian Christians by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in northeast Syria, in a horrendous act that appears to be a “retaliatory” measure for the latest Kurdish offensive.

B’nai B’rith urges the international coalition currently fighting ISIS to utilize all necessary means to avoid the massacre of these innocent people.

This is the latest example of both ISIS’ brutal tactics and its targeting of a minority group. Among other atrocities, ISIS assailed the Yazidis in Iraq by starving them on a mountain top and enslaving hundreds of women.

Furthermore, this diabolical act merely adds to the steady drumbeat of violence against Christians, their churches and property throughout much of the Middle East. Just this month Libyan militants claiming loyalty to ISIS released a video featuring mass beheadings of Egyptian Coptic Christians.

ISIS and other fanatic Islamist groups are a plague on the Middle East and the world. They must not be allowed to grow or spread their toxic program of violent hatred.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

With reports that the P5+1 (United States, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom) and Tehran may be close to a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, B’nai B’rith International expresses its ongoing concern about the viability of the plan.

Media are reporting that talks are wrapping up between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Mohammed Zarif, foreign minister of Iran, with the outlines of a possible long-term agreement reached about Iran’s nuclear activities.

With a month to go before this initial framework is to be implemented, B’nai B’rith urges the White House and the P5+1 to toughen their approach on Tehran to close gaps in the agreement on such issues as plutonium enrichment, intrusive inspections, and the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran’s nuclear program.

The global ramifications of Iran gaining access to nuclear weapons are immense. It is important that the parameters of an agreement undergo additional scrutiny and debate before a deal is struck. We appeal to the administration and the P5+1 to revisit these issues and others lest we find in a decade or less that Iran is nuclear weapons ready. Reports indicate that a plan is emerging that would limit Iran’s ability to produce nuclear material for 10 years, but would include a provision loosening those restrictions in the final years of the deal. This is a major concern to us.

Skepticism of Iran’s true nuclear intentions is natural, in light of the regime’s own words and actions.

Just a few months ago, Iranian General Mohammad Ali Jafari said: “The range of (our) missiles covers all of Israel today. That means the fall of the Zionist regime, which will certainly come soon.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that same month: “Whether a nuclear agreement is achieved or not, Israel will be more insecure each day.”

Even during the long months of negotiations, Iran has continued to sponsor international terror organizations, enrich uranium, defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), pursue plans to build intercontinental ballistic missiles and hide the military dimensions of its nuclear program. While there is still time, these concerns must be addressed by negotiators. Additionally, Iran continues to extend its influence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and now Yemen, continues to abuse human rights, denies rights to political opposition groups, and has jailed a Washington Post reporter in Tehran. If Iran is so defiant while negotiations are underway, what can we expect once a deal is signed?

A nuclear-ready Iran has consequences that would resonate far beyond Israel and the United States. It is incumbent on the negotiators to consider this and not enter into a deal that puts Iran one step closer to nuclear weapons capability.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International lauds the jury in a New York federal court for handing down a historic verdict in the battle against terror, finding the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) liable for terrorist attacks that killed 33 Americans and injured more than 450 during the Second Intifada.

The plaintiffs included 10 American families whose relatives were killed or injured from 2002 to 2004. They argued that the PA and PLO provided direct and ancillary assistance to the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks, as well as financial compensation to those imprisoned and to the families of those who died. The U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York jury awarded the plaintiffs $218.5 million in damages, a figure that triples to $655.5 million under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act. 

In an era of rising terrorism, this verdict sets a legal and moral standard for the often onerous pursuit of justice against perpetrators. Moreover, this verdict is a symbolic victory for the families of those Americans killed by the PA and the PLO in the past, such as the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel, Jr., who was taken hostage and shot by PLO militants in 1973.

No sum of money can ever heal the pain and suffering of the victims’ families, but this decision, for the first time, has brought a measure of justice to those seeking redress for these murderous acts.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International mourns the loss of 4-year-old Adele Biton, who died yesterday due to complications from pneumonia, two years after she was critically wounded in a Palestinian terror attack. Biton’s death should further highlight the fact that stone-throwing is not a peaceful protest, as is sometimes portrayed in the media, and can lead to deadly consequences.

In a 2013 attack near Ariel, Israel, Palestinian attackers threw stones at a truck, causing the driver to slam on the brakes. Adele, her mother Adva Biton, and two sisters were in the car behind the truck. They were also hit by the stones and Adva lost control of the vehicle, striking the truck in front of them. Adele was critically injured in the attack and sustained major neurological injuries as a result.

Adva is adamant that because of the injuries Adele incurred during the attack, her body was unable to deal with pneumonia, resulting in her death.

B’nai B’rith’s thoughts and prayers go out to Adele’s family during this trying time. 

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

The weekend shooting attacks in Copenhagen on a synagogue and a free speech seminar are frighteningly similar to the January terror spree in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher market.

Two people were killed in the Copenhagen attacks.

B’nai B’rith expresses our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the two men killed in the Copenhagen attacks: Dan Uzan, a 37-year-old member of the local Jewish community, who was serving as a volunteer guarding a synagogue during a bat mitzvah ceremony; and Finn Nørgaard, 55, who was attending the free speech seminar.

Recent attacks on Jewish sites in Europe indicate violence linked to anti-Semitism is becoming more common.

Just days earlier, a German court ruled the firebombing of a synagogue in Wuppertal was not anti-Semitism. Instead, the court determined the attack was meant to bring “attention to the Gaza conflict.”

The ruling sends a dangerous and troubling message that terrorists can hide blatant anti-Semitism behind a different label and escape punishment.

The two adult attackers and their 18-year-old accomplice in the Wuppertal firebombing were ordered to perform 200 hours of community service. The adults involved in the case each received suspended prison terms.

It is a perilous time as anti-Semitic attitudes increasingly masquerade as anti-Israel political statements. Violence against Jews and their houses of worship should be punished accordingly—as the hate crimes they are.  

B’nai B’rith International sent a letter to Chairman, President and CEO of Urban Outfitters Richard Hayne to express deep dismay over the inappropriate design used in a tapestry that clearly conjures up Holocaust imagery and trivializes the suffering of the victims.

In the letter, B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin call on Urban Outfitters to immediately discontinue the product, writing: “As a Jewish organization dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust and upholding its lessons, we are deeply concerned about any action taken to dilute the historical meaning of this tragic episode and weaken its power to education future generations about the dangers of hatred and bigotry.”

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

After reviewing the Obama administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16) budget, B’nai B’rith International has mixed reactions to areas affecting seniors and the low-income Americans, as well as matters of international policy—both spheres in which B’nai B’rith is extremely active.

B’nai B’rith is pleased the administration is calling for a “clean reallocation” of funds within the payroll tax, allowing the disability and retirement benefits to be on equal and secure footing until 2033 and avoiding a disability shortfall in 2016. Reallocations among parts of the Social Security program are not uncommon and have occurred 11 times in the past. 

B’nai B’rith is also satisfied to see that the administration sought to undo many of the sequester cuts in domestic discretionary programs. The administration was able to do so without gutting such mandatory programs as Social Security and Medicare that affect the elderly. Other promising ideas gleaned from the FY16 budget include allowing the U.S. Department or Health and Human Services to negotiate prices on cutting edge drugs like “biologics” for Medicare beneficiaries and reducing out of pocket prescription spending. 

We remain quite concerned, however, about provisions appearing again in this year’s budget that would shift more costs, including health costs, to older adults and the disabled. Among these worrisome cost-shifting measures are ill-conceived penalties for disability beneficiaries who also receive unemployment insurance, changes to the Medicare’s premium structure that increase costs for many beneficiaries and a proposal that would penalize people who buy certain types of supplemental Medicare coverage. 

While we continue to work toward fully restoring the Department of Housing and Urban Development program that has funded the construction of thousands of rental apartments for low-income elders, we are pleased to see the administration’s budget would continue to fund operating and service coordination expenses for existing buildings across the country. B’nai B’rith is the largest national Jewish sponsor of low-income housing for seniors in the United States. 

In the international policy realm, the administration’s $54.8 billion foreign aid budget request for FY16 is a welcome reversal of past cuts to international affairs. However, the total request level represents only a modest increase at a time when many important U.S. programs overseas are already significantly underfunded. Additionally, it is unfortunate that humanitarian assistance is down 13 percent at a time when conflicts are on the rise and victims of natural disasters desperately need help.

B’nai B’rith does welcome the administration’s call for a 29.2 percent increase in the Economic Support Fund that will bolster strategic economic assistance to address global crises and countries in conflict, including Ukraine and its neighbors; and combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Aid to Israel, at $3.1 billion, will remain the same as in Fiscal Year 2014 and Fiscal Year 2015, continuing U.S. support for the only democracy in the Middle East.

B’nai B’rith calls on Congress to fund at least the full amount of the administration’s international affairs budget request.

B’nai B’rith International is pleased that William Schabas has quit his position as head of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) inquiry into Israel’s defensive operations in Gaza during the summer of 2014. The probe itself—tarnished from the start by the Council’s record of singular discrimination against Israel and its advance excoriation of the Jewish state—must be discontinued.

Schabas has been under fire since his appointment to head the “independent, international commission of inquiry” due to his prior, outspoken anti-Israel views. It also came to light recently that Schabas, a Canadian academic, was paid to provide legal advice to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Although Schabas says he is excusing himself to avoid overshadowing the results of the commission’s report expected in March, the probe’s “research” has reportedly already been completed. 

“This latest U.N. kangaroo court targeting the world’s only Jewish democracy was illegitimate from the beginning. It was cobbled together following a Human Rights Council resolution that blasted Israel before the commission even launched and didn’t so much as mention Hamas,” B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said. “This inquiry has always been stacked against Israel and Schabas’ resignation only reaffirms how corrupt it is.”

Schabas’ bias against Israel has never been a secret. In 2013 he was quoted as saying, “my favorite would be [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu within the dock of the International Criminal Court.” 

“While we welcome the departure of William Schabas from the ‘commission of inquiry,’ his biased, anti-Israel attitude will undoubtedly be present throughout its findings,” B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said. “The inquiry was specifically designed not to focus on years of cross-border terrorist attacks against Israelis, but‎ rather Israel’s defensive response to them. Whatever the Human Rights Council releases in March is likely to attempt to draw equivalence between terrorism and a state defending its civilians from that threat—an outrageous and unacceptable conclusion.”

NYC Snowstorm Forces Postponement of U.S. Event

Every year on January 27 the world recognizes United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day, a date selected marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation and B’nai B’rith International was active throughout Latin America, commemorating this important day.

In Uruguay an exhibit on Anne Frank was created and inaugurated in Montevideo’s city hall, the capital and the country’s largest city. Uruguayan President José Mujica attended the event, addressing the audience and the entire nation in a speech broadcast on radio and television. Mujica’s remarks focused on the evils of the Shoah and the atrocities of genocide. Meanwhile, the General Assembly of Uruguay held a solemn session in which representatives of all parties addressed the legislature in commemoration of the Holocaust. B’nai B’rith, the overall Jewish community and the Ministry of Education also hosted an academic event titled “70 Years After Auschwitz was Closed” at Montevideo city hall.

With all the tensions swirling within Argentina following the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman—the man responsible for investigating the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building that killed 85 and wounded 300—Holocaust Remembrance Day in Buenos Aires was extremely emotional. Typically the commemoration ceremony is organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice and the Undersecretary of Human Rights, but amid the questions surrounding Nisman’s death all Jewish organizations declined to attend. B’nai B’rith has formally declined an invitation for the past two years following Argentina’s signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding” with Iran, an agreement which purports to investigate the terror attack.

Instead, a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony was held at the AMIA building. The commemoration was a crowded, emotional scene as Holocaust survivors were present and the AMIA president spoke on behalf of the Jewish organizations present. B’nai B’rith Argentina President Mario Wilhelm lit the fourth candle on the menorah on behalf of partisans and Jewish fighters who died while resisting the Nazis.

B’nai B’rith sponsored a Holocaust Remembrance Day program in Santiago, Chile as well, where it was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with ministers, ambassadors, civilian, religious and military authorities, survivors and their families in attendance.  

Minister of Foreign Affairs Heraldo Muñoz addressed the audience, highlighting the government’s commitment to protecting minorities in Chile and the urgent need to reject all types of discrimination pervasive in society.

Executive Vice President of the National Institute of Human Rights and winner of the Light and Memory Award Lorena Fries also spoke, as did B’nai B’rith Chile President Emma Finkelstein.

In her remarks, Finkelstein discussed the main threats to Israel, Jews around the world and to Chile. She acknowledged the success of the Anti-Discrimination Act that was enacted last year, but regretted the fact that anti-Semitism was not explicitly included as a means of discrimination. Finkelstein also called for a bill seeking to establish hate speech as a crime and for the Holocaust to be included in the official curriculum of the Ministry of Education. 

“On behalf of the Jewish community and as president of B’nai B’rith Chile,” Finkelstein said, “we know it is our obligation to raise our voice and condemn these actions that we hope will not be accepted by the international community. We owe it to the dead but, above all, we owe it to the living, to our children as well as to your children.”

In Brazil two ceremonies were held, including an interreligious ceremony with Christians and Muslims at the Congregação Israelita Paulista in São Paulo. The second ceremony was hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs at the Itamaraty Palace with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in attendance. 

Unfortunately, a snow storm in New York City forced the postponement of B’nai B’rith International’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program at the United Nations. This year’s program was to focus on Arturo Toscanini, one of the most renowned orchestral maestros of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Tuscanini was a staunch anti-fascist who publicly took a hard-line stance against the oppression and racism of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler and supported the establishment of the orchestra now known as the Israel Philharmonic in 1936 in solidarity with young Jewish musicians escaping Nazi persecution. The B’nai B’rith program was to be held in partnership with the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations. The event will be rescheduled.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

Well before last week’s attack on a kosher market in Paris that left four Jews dead, 37 countries sent a letter to the president of the United Nations General Assembly expressing concern over “the global outbreak of anti-Semitism” and calling for a session on combating violence and hatred directed toward Jews.

The attack that occurred last week only solidifies the need to have an urgent conversation about anti-Semitism in the world today.

The appeal from countries including the United States, Israel, Canada, Australia and all members of the European Union prompted the U.N. General Assembly to schedule a first-time meeting on anti-Semitism on Jan. 22.

B’nai B’rith International commends this effort by participating countries to take a focused approach to tackling the scourge of global anti-Semitism. 

Bringing this issue to the U.N. General Assembly is one notable step in fighting this pernicious form of hatred and B’nai B’rith will look for it to be built upon with concrete, consistent action by governments, international agencies and civil society.